but they had not progressed far south towards the centre of the Indian Peninsula; and doubtless the Himâlayas completely shut them in on the north. Apart from the above-cited express statement, we meet with very few collateral or incidental facts in the Institutes calculated to support any inference as to the physical condition of the country occupied by Manu's people. High ground is seldom alluded to. In one place the king is recommended to fix his abode in a champaign country, abounding in grain, and having, if possible, a fortress of mountains (p. 167, 69). On the other hand, the writer more than once displays a familiarity with low-lying lands. The simile "As he who digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of water" bespeaks a prevailing state of things such as obtains in the valley of a great river (p. 45, 218). And the direction (p. 221, 245)—"If a contest arise between two villages concerning a boundary, let the king ascertain the limits in the month of Jyêshṭha, when the landmarks are seen more distinctly," seems to point to a land which is Hooded during the season of the rains. All this accords very well with the supposition that those to whom the Dharma Ṡástra was addressed lived principally, if not almost exclusively, in the upper half of the Gangetic trough. Although it is stated that the Âryans might dwell anywhere between the two oceans, the Eastern and the Western, and therefore it may be inferred that they had in some degree extended themselves to these limits, still it is very clear that they had little or nothing to do with the sea. "A navigator of the ocean" was the subject of abhorrence (p. 72, 158), and was ranked with a house-burner, a poisoner, and a suborner of perjury. Sea-borne goods are however mentioned; and in a passage of the—comparatively speaking—more modern portion of the law relative to the charges which might he made at ferries, and for the conveyance of goods by water, we have; "For a long passage the freight must be proportioned to places and times, but this must be understood of the passages up and down rivers; at sea there a no settled freight" (p. 241, 406). But the fact seems to be that the Indian Âryans in Manu's age were essentially an inland people, and had not yet reached the shores of Bengal and Orissa. They had been settled long enough to suffice for the growth in different localities of tribes or sub-races respectively marked and distinguished by known characteristics—an element in the development of caste already dwelt upon. Thus the men of the Brahmarshi district (perhaps the neighbourhood of Dehli to the south) had acquired a special reputation for courage, and it is not unlikely that they then represented the oldest and best Aryan blood.[1] Nepâl (p. 82, 235 and 234, and p. 138, 120) was famous for its blankets but whether it was reckoned a foreign country or not, or whether the Âryans obtained any hold over it, there is no information afforded us from which we can judge. There were cities governed by Śûdra kings (p. 96, 61), resembling perhaps a small râj, independent of the Âryan, but possessing a co-ordinate civilization. The Âryans themselves must also have been split up into various kingdoms, or râjs; for in Manu's dissertation on the art of war the king is instructed how to conduct himself in certain contingencies towards neighbouring powers (p. 167, 64), and in the event of his being pressed on all sides by hostile troops he is told to seek the protection of a just and powerful monarch (p. 181, 174).
A LEGEND OF OLD BEḶGÂM.
BY GILMOUR M'CORKELL, Bo. C.S.
The accompanying popular account of the foundation of Beḷgâṁ and its subsequent capture by the Musalmân powers, although not historically accurate, may not be without interest to the student of the early history of the Southern Mahratta Country.
No doubt the Belgâṁ which along with Śâpûr was called Jîrṇaśîtapura was what is spoken of further on as Old Belgâṁ, of which we still find the remains of the embankment of the mud fort close to the second milestone on the Dhârwâḍ road; and about one mile from Beḷgâṁ on the Khânâpur road we pass along the (illegible text) a large tank, of which the name was Nȧgarakere, and it is,
doubtless, identical with the lake of Nâga
- ↑ p. 183, 193; p. 19, 19; and see Cunningham, vol. I. p. 340.
